The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen
Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4155953 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawai'i–Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 134-135 |
| Publication date | 2018-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jay022 |
| OpenAlex | W2804713060 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
Like her pathbreaking Aloha Betrayed, Noenoe K. Silva's new book draws extensively on Hawaiian-language newspaper sources to foreground the agency and knowledge that Hawaiians have, for over 150 years, wielded in writing to protest and counter their dispossession. While Aloha Betrayed sought to dispel the myth of Hawaiians' passive acceptance of U.S. annexation, “the main purpose of [The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen] is to further the project of mapping Kanaka Hawaii (Native Hawaiian) intellectual history” (p. 1); that assertion immediately establishes self-determination as the framework and relates Silva's historiography to the empowerment of her people and the reeducation of her readers. A professor of indigenous politics and Hawaiian language, Silva focuses on the multigenre writings of two Hawaiians, Joseph Ho'ona'auao Kānepu'u and Joseph Moku'ōhai Poepoe. She asks: “How will our picture of Hawaiian history, them, and ourselves change when we know their names, their politics, and the extent of their written philosophies, literature, and so forth?” (p. 8). Silva addresses Hawaiian readers here; but, as Ngūgī wa Thiong'o—acclaimed novelist and author of Decolonizing the Mind and Globalectics (2012)—suggests in his foreword, her project resonates within a “global movement for the decolonization of languages and the mind” (p. x
Aloha · Art · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Indigenous · Literature · Native Hawaiians · Pacific islanders · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Law
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |